Research prompts calls for diarrhoea vaccine in developing countries

EMILY BOURKE: It's a condition that claims the lives of 800,000 children under the age of five every year around the world but new international research into the causes of diarrhoea has identified just a handful of causes.

A study involving seven countries in Africa and South East Asia has found that just four pathogens cause most of the cases of diarrhoea in young children.

A vaccine already exists for one of the pathogens and the study's authors say lives could be saved if the vaccine is made available in some of the world's poorest countries.

Felicity Ogilvie has the story.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The landmark study has discovered that just four pathogens are responsible for the condition that's killing so many children in developing countries.

One of the lead authors is Professor of Paediatrics and Medicine at the University of Maryland, Karen Kotloff,

KAREN KOTLOFF: We did a very large study of the incidents and causes of moderate to severe diarrhoea among children under five years of age in seven developing countries and found that four pathogens cause nearly half of all cases and so interventions that could be directed at those pathogens have the potential for saving thousands of lives.

FELICITY OGILVIE: There is already a vaccine for one of the pathogens that is causing diarrhoea - the rotavirus.

The vaccine is available in Australia and the USA. But it's not administered in many of the poor countries where most children die from the condition.

Indian paediatrician Professor Shinjini Bhatnagar says greater effort is needed to make the vaccine more affordable for poorer countries.

SHINJINI BHATNAGAR: The data now shows very clearly and this paper, germs paper published in Lancet, establishes very clearly that rotavirus is a major cause of moderate to severe diarrhoea in children less than five years, particularly those less than two years so the best way to take care of that, this is over and about personal hygiene, sanitation, all that has to be done but in addition we need to prevent it with a good vaccine.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The cost of the rotavirus vaccine is about $US2.50 a dose but India is leading the way in developing a cheaper, locally produced version

SHINJINI BHATNAGAR: Now India's come up with this indigenous vaccine and once it gets regulatory approval it's available in India, it can easily be made available to other neighbouring countries and other countries in South-East Asia.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The chief of health for UNICEF in India, Dr Genevieve Begkoyian says a vaccine won't be enough to stop the spread of diarrhoea.

GENEVIEVE BEGKOYIAN: We are really hoping with this vaccine to really target a lot but at the same time, why to vaccine a child, to vaccinate a child when the child is still living in a very bad hygiene and sanitation situation?

FELICITY OGILVIE: Dr Begkoyian is managing a team of medical doctors who are supporting the Indian government in a bid to tackle mortality in children under five.

She says teaching a child's parents about hygiene will also address the problem.

GENEVIEVE BEGKOYIAN: Take a child in a very remote area of India where there is absolutely nothing. There is no water hut for them, the well is not properly put in place and therefore there is no access to safe drinking water.

The mother doesn't have a soap to wash the hands. When she's preparing the food, she's preparing the food with dirty water, in dirty instruments so for sure whatever she will feed to the child will not be suitable and will provoke diarrhoea.

And if anything, with simple issues like hand washing, like access to safe drinking water, the really basic interventions but they are yet not happening at scale everyday in India households.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The study also found that children in developing countries who recover from diarrhoea often have stunted growth and suffer from malnutrition.